29% PATRIOT | FROM OUR GENERATION #61

A CNN poll on July 4th attitudes reveals a divide that did not exist a generation ago. In January 2001, 85% of Democrats said they were extremely or very proud to be American. In 2026, that number is 29%. Republican pride held steady at 90% across the same period. Only 27% of Democrats plan to display the flag on July 4th, down from 65% twenty-five years ago. The question isn't which party is right. The question is what happened in a single generation to produce that kind of collapse.

Part of the answer may be in the classrooms. At Harvard, 47% of seniors report experiencing mental illness during their time at the university, with another 13% unsure. Princeton's numbers are worse: over 60% sought mental health counseling or therapy during college. These are not struggling students. They were among the most capable people in the country when they arrived. Four years later, they are twice as likely to report mental illness as the general population. The demographics most associated with mental illness in the broader data: college-educated, Democrat, liberal, white, and lower family income. College-educated Americans are more depressed than those without degrees. Something is being taught, or absorbed, that is making intelligent people less functional.

A self-described socialist internationalist professor at St. Anselm's College posted a public meltdown summarizing the state of the progressive project: Venezuela lost, Cuba slipping, climate action dead, the American left described as populist trash in possession of zero brainpower. The despair is real, but it is the despair of an ideology that assumed history would move in one direction and is watching it reverse.

The Obama Presidential Center opened in Chicago at roughly $1 billion, more than triple its original budget, five years behind schedule. Obama gave a speech about how American culture is too fixated on money and fame. Meanwhile, the Association of Black Contractors in Chicago reports that minority firms Obama promised to use were stiffed. Some are declaring bankruptcy after completing hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid work. The celebrities performing at the grand opening were not working for free.

A GAO report reveals there is no way to cross-reference federal spending records with the government's own "do not pay" list. Blue states are refusing to cooperate with federal efforts to identify fraudulent recipients. The fraud has become a business model: a mechanism for drawing federal dollars into state budgets with no accountability attached.

The EU Parliament voted for the strictest immigration laws in 50 years, followed by floor chanting of "send them back." The EU also agreed to eliminate tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods, a concession that was supposed to be impossible under Trump's trade pressure. Illinois added $800 million in new annual taxes, its 63rd tax or fee increase under Pritzker. California state workers are suing to avoid returning to the office, arguing that commuting harms the environment. And Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire after SpaceX went public, while Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, neither of whom has ever created a job or shared a dollar of personal wealth, called him too rich.

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